goons, headed a
claymore charge, and drove them back. A hapless garrison of Lancashire
volunteers was left to the tender mercies of Cumberland in Carlisle, and
Charles went by way of Whiggish Dumfries (the house where he lodged is
now an inn) to Glasgow. To all intents and purposes the end had come.
Charles had lost faith in the advisers who dragged him back from the
south, he listened to Murray of Broughton and to his Irishry; he
suspected, unjustly but not unnaturally, the good faith of Lord George.
He dallied at Stirling, besieging the castle without proper artillery,
and Hawley was sent to attack him. On January 17, 1746, the armies met
at Falkirk. A storm of wind and rain blew at the backs of the
Highlanders, they charged, scattered the enemy, drove them in flight,
and cut up the Glasgow volunteers. But, in the dark and the mist they
scarcely knew their own advantage. The pipers had thrown their pipes to
their boys, had gone in with the claymore, and could not sound the
calls. Hawley wrote to Cumberland "My heart is broke ... I got off but
three cannon of the ten." Hawley retreated to Edinburgh, the Duke of
Cumberland came to take the command; the Highlanders began to desert
with their booty, dissensions prevailed, and Charles went on besieging
Stirling. Again Lord George Murray urged a retreat, Charles dashed his
head in impotent rage against the wall of his room, but he had to
follow. With perfect truth he said:

"I cannot see anything but ruin and destruction to us all in case we
should think of a retreat;" his forces in flight would lose heart, his
enemies would gain confidence. All this was true, but all this was
unavailing. Months were spent in unimportant movements. Cumberland,
meanwhile, instructed his men in the method of meeting a Highland
charge, and deceiving the parry of the Highland shields. It was known
that France would lend no substantial aid, and a French subsidy of
30,000 _Louis d'or_ came too late, after the battle of Culloden, and was
buried at the head of Loch Arkaig. One last chance Charles had: Lord
George proposed, and Charles eagerly seconded, a night surprise at
Nairn. But the delays on the march, and the arrival of dawn, made Murray
command a retreat, and Charles's faith in him was irretrievably gone for
the time, though he later expressed in writing a more worthy opinion.
With 10,000 well-fed men against 5,000 who were starving, Cumberland had
every chance of victory at Culloden. The Ma